Analyzing a sample and detecting its components may be critical in many areas of science, particularly (bio)(medical)chemistry. The sample to be analyzed, usually referred-to as “analyte” typically is initially separated into its components and then each component is analyzed for identification.
Analyzing the sample can be accomplished in a variety of ways. For example a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer may be used, which may provide information about molecular composition of the sample.
An embodiment of a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy device is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,788,061. The known device comprises an analyte sample holder having a containment region arranged for holding a volume of the sample for investigation, and a coil enclosing the containment region. The device further comprises a magnet for maintaining a permanent magnetic field in the containment region, wherein the coil is arranged to transmit or receive the RF energy to and from the analyte sample provided in the containment region.
In the known device the RF microcoil may be used to detect analytes during capillary electrophoresis. Accordingly, the microcoil may be wrapped around the capillary. The known device further comprises an electrical circuit which is associated with the microcoil for enabling the microcoil to transmit and to receive energy. The detection circuit of the known device comprises an impedance matched circuit for ensuring that the microcoil is tuned to a particular narrow bandwidth. Therefore, the known device is operable for detecting a particular analyte whose response may be expected in the bandwidth for which the microcoil is tuned.
It is a disadvantage of the known device that only one specific kind of nuclei may be analyzed in the known device. Should it be required to detect a presence of two or more different kinds of nuclei in the sample, the tuning circuit should be adapted and the data acquisition should be repeated.
A further embodiment of a NMR spectroscopy device is known from EP 1 918 730. The known device relates to a flow-through microfluidic NMR chip, which is adapted to facilitate NMR-spectroscopic measurements using an extended coil. The extended coil has a larger dimension in the direction of B0-filed than its dimension in an orthogonal direction.
In an embodiment of the known device it comprises a plurality of coils, each coil being tuned to its own dedicated frequency. This arrangement is used for facilitating multi-nuclide data acquisition.
It is a disadvantage of the known device that a complicated architecture is required for enabling the multi-nuclide data acquisition.